The Crimson Blade
by Instinct Uncaged
Summary: Ivan is but a single man in the middle of world war 2. He meets a man called Pavel who tells him of a group who can help bring about the change that every man in Russia has been waiting for.


**Crimson Blade**

Ivan crouched low in his spot in the trench, his whole body was trembling badly, not out of fear, but from the almost unbearable cold. Snow was drifting lazily from the sky, falling across the already white ground that was stained with the blood of men who had died on it. The barking of gunfire sounded every now and then it might be followed by a scream. His rifle-man Pavel crouched next to him, shivering as well, neither of them had nearly enough layers of warmth to combat the cold. If they wanted more layers then they would have to steal them from the dead, if they survived that long, they did not even have enough guns to give one to each man. They had to give one man to two people, the idea being that the unarmed man would grab the rifle if the armed man were to be killed, for that to work the unarmed man would have to survive as well. Pavel was his rifle man and Ivan was the unarmed man, lucky him.

"You ready for this?" Pavel asked him, looking up over the top of the trench and then back to Ivan.

"What the hell do you think?" Ivan said sarcastically, rubbing his gloved, desperately trying to get a heat to his cold fingers, "you heard the stories, as soon as you go up and over, you die".

"There will be better things waiting for us on the other side my friend" Pavel said, shouldering his rifle and making sure that there was a round in the chamber, "we are destined for greater fates than this".

"Like what?" Ivan sneered, "all we'll do is die for our bumbling King and his inept wife. They are a shambles and we are simply a part of the price that they have to pay".

From behind them a shout came, the Sergeant, clearly recognizable by the stripes on his sleeve came walking down through the trenches behind all of the men, "ready yourselves comrades!" he bellowed at the top of his voice, "we will be going over the top in five minutes!" he was carrying a rather menacing pistol in his hand. His face had a thick silver beard covering most of it and the top of his head was protected by a furry cap with flaps at the side for his ears. "We go for our King! Our Czar! And we go for mother Russia!". There was very limited reactions to this, most of the men were very low on morale after the months of enduring the war, "any dog who tries to flee" snarled the Sergeant as he passed by Ivan and Pavel, "will be shot on sight! Anyone who refuses to get out of this trench will be shot on sight!".

He moved on past them and continued repeating his words, "so many of us dead and he could still deafen you about how much he loves the Czar" snickered Pavel, Ivan couldn't help but chuckle a little. "That's it, smile comrade" he said to Ivan placing a hand on the man's shoulder, "this will not be the end for us".

"How can you be so sure?" Ivan asked bluntly, "after everyone else, how can you be so sure that we will make it?".

A rat scurried across the ground by them in the trench, it was fat and bloated from eating corpses of men. Pavel gave it a swift kick and it squealed as he punted it down the trench towards where the Sergeant had gone. "Because I am a part of something bigger" Pavel said, "and we have a vision for Russia, it is great and beautiful. Together we will bring this about".

"What mad cult is this that you have joined?" Ivan asked incredulously, "speak sense man!".

"I have become an assassin my friend" Pavel said, "it was long and difficult but I have become one of them". He pulled back a layer of his jacket to reveal a pin with a strange symbol on it, "it is a mark of courage an honour" he murmured under his breath, "we fight for the people, to keep balance and that is what Russia is lacking! We must heal her Ivan, we must!".

"How does one become a part of such a group?" Ivan asked curiously, cocking his head.

"When we make it through this I will show you" Pavel said firmly, turning towards the battlefield, "just follow me and we will survive".

"It's easy to say that when you're the one carrying the gun" Ivan said wryly putting his hand onto the edge of the trench.

"I see that you finally found that sense of humour" Pavel replied, grinning as he readied himself, Ivan cocked his head a little, there was no joke in his words. "Good, you will need that to get through this" he suddenly sounded very grim.

"Now, rise comrades!" cried the Sergeant, raising his pistol aloft, "rise up for Russia!". Pavel launched himself up and over the trench, charging forwards, firing his rifle as he went, "any dog left in this trench will be put down!" roared the Sergeant. Ivan scrambled out of the trench, trying to follow Pavel as best as he could, hundreds and thousands of men scuttled out of the trenches onto the battlefield.

Ivan could feel his heart pounding much quicker than his feet off of the ground, gunshots behind him made him jump with fright as he sprinted behind Pavel, whom he had now caught up with. Some men fell to the ground and they were simply trampled on, Ivan spotted a free rifle lying on the ground, he bent down to scoop it up off of the ground. He was nearly knocked over by another man who simply shouldered past him but he managed to recover his balance.

That was when the machine guns started.

A deafening roar from hot barrels that spat death to any poor unfortunate who happened to be caught in its path. Ivan ducked as he ran and searched for Pavel, he had taken his eyes of the man for but a few seconds and already he had lost him among the throng of people. The dirt exploded around the mass of people as the bullets from the machine gun scythed through people, everyone tried to find cover but there wasn't much to go around. A sharp pull on Ivan's shoulder pulled him to the ground, he landed hard, accidentally pulling the trigger on his rifle which barked as it fired. Ivan turned about to retort but a hand pushed his head straight down to the ground, "stay down!" Pavel said loudly over the gunfire.

Ivan looked up, they were just by the small brow of a hill, the noise of screaming men and the machine made him tremble. He couldn't help it, he was scared, he wasn't ready to die yet. He reached and grabbed Pavel by the shoulder, "if you get me through this, I'll join whatever the hell cult that is you're in! You hear me" he shouted over the machine guns in Pavel's face.

Pavel grinned, "let's go then!"


End file.
